LOOSE CARTILAGE FROM INTERVERTEBRAL DISK SIMULATING TUMOR OF THE SPINAL CORD

Abstract

The two loose cartilages here reported were disclosed at operation for presumed tumors of the cauda equina. In each instance the spinal canal was completely blocked as shown by the shadows of iodized oil 40 per cent (figs. 1 and 2). The signs and symptoms were so rapidly progressive and the pain in the spinal column so severe that presumptive diagnoses of carcinoma of the vertebra were made. The fact that the two cases appeared only a few months apart leads me to believe that the lesion may not be so infrequent, although a review of the literature has failed to disclose other cases of their kind. The lesion is a completely detached fragment of cartilage from an intervertebral (lumbar) disk and is surrounded by serum. It bulges dorsally into the spinal canal as a tumor, and by compressing the roots of the cauda equina causes motor and sensory paralysis,